What’s your BEST and WORST of this week?

I wanted to try something different for this weeks Comment Friday. I want to invite you guys to share your best and worst moments of cycling this week.

I’ll start us off but I’m going to cheat a little as I’ve not been doing any cycling this week while I’m travelling so I’ll refer back to last week.

My best: First coming back from France I was so eager to jump on a bike. The opportunity came when my friend, who only lives less than 10 minutes cycling away, finished his work and invited me over. Hopping on my bike for the first time in over a week felt great. I’m always amazed at how fast it whizzes along on a smooth road surface and I couldn’t resist taking my hands off the bars and pedalling down the empty A road enjoying the cool post-rain breeze. If only all roads in London were as smooth as that one.

My worst: I don’t frequently cycle in rush hour and when I do it’s a very hit and miss experience. This time pedalling over to a meeting in Hyde Park was really not fun. It was one of those days where you get hit by all the red lights and each time a loud motorbike happened to be next to me. I felt like I really had to fight for my place in the road and I was glad to just finally get to the park and relax along the cycle lane and have a drink in the Serpentine Cafe which is one of my new favourite meeting places.

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FYI – there are police on bycicles on Old Street (just west of the roundabout with City road) stopping cyclists who jump the lights this morning. Ironically, they’re mostly having to shoot the lights themselves to catch up.

Best – the weather this morning was lovely for my cycle in of the week.

Worst – losing it completely and screaming like a nutter through the car window of the geezer who shot past me at 40 honking and shouting because I was riding two abreast (for a minute, overtaking), before stopping at a red light a hundred yards on. I feel sorry for his passenger, who was in between us!

Best – Cycling in the dry in the early evening yesterday.
Worst – Dressed for cycling in the rain in the early evening yesterday. I guess I must have sweated off 25 extra calories under the waterproof, so maybe it wasn’t all that bad!

If you’d asked about the previous week, my worst journey was on the Friday from Westminster to Boston Manor where I only went though 4 green lights and 3 pedestrian crossings. I had to stop at all the other lights and crossings, which is annoying and hard work if you’ve had to stop in top gear!

best was the ride in yesterday – just missed the rain then had the best luck with the lights and made it all the way from canning town to watney market without a stop.
worst was someone turning right from the other direction across my path – they hadn’t spotted me and i did a big old swerve to not die. it was close enough that the passenger screamed. took me a few days to stop being off kilter after that one.

Best: this morning’s commute was lovely, cool and dry, perfect cycling weather. Worst?engaging my dynamo to go home after Tai Chi, only to find a break in the wiring had rendered the lights useless- someone had decided to pull the wire hard enough to snap it. That was a nervous ride home at dusk…

Worst: Late last night, I cycled from Finsbury Park to Redbridge in north-east London where I am house-sitting for the week. I got completely lost after the police closed the junction of Seven Sisters Rd & Green Lanes. After about a mile and a half of cycling the wrong way, I finally gave in and pulled out the iPhone for GPS google maps goodness.

Best: After finding my way again I had a lovely journey at 1AM in the morning cycling all the way through quiet main roads in East London. It seems most of the journey from Finsbury Park to north east London is on a gentle slope so I got some great speeds (avg 20mph on a mile split) and hardly saw another road user. It’s a beautiful hour to be cycling on the road and the temparature was perfect.

I read a lot of comments on this blog complaining about drivers but since I started cycling a few months ago, I really can’t say I’ve had that many problems with drivers. Most drivers in London seem quite aware of cyclists and give you a decent amount of room. Most of my worst moments are from me being an idiot and doing something stupid. I’ve got annoyed at myself for:
not pumping my tyres enough,
not realising one of my rear v-brake arms had slipped out and wondering why i was crawling,
not waking up on time and so being stressed about traffic lights etc.
taking a wrong route for no apparent reason on the commute I ride every day (done this several times!).
wimping out because of the weather forecast only for it to not rain.

good stuff this week got my specialized secteur sport through cycle to work scheme lovin it so far great bike, its my first road bike wish i had got one years ago instead of those heavy mountain bikes, went on london skyride sunday good fun, bad things this week dont have any sorry!

Best: Cycling home from Brixton to Wood Green on Saturday night after a lovely evening with friends. Quiet roads and loads of fun

Worst: Getting stopped by police for waiting ahead of a stop line at a notoriously dangerous junction where my waiting position is the safest by far (16 years of riding through it!) Then getting driven into by a car one minute later as the driver pulled into the curb without indicating or checking her mirrors. Justice?

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